


Poisoning

by Fuinixe



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Attempted Sexual Assault, Brothels, Choose Your Own Ending, Drug Use, Historical, M/M, Mentioned Andy | Andromache of Scythia / Original Female Character, Mentioned Booker | Sebastien le Livre / Original Character(s), Mission Fic, Offscreen attempted sexual assault (non-graphic), Opium Overdose, Poisoning, Temporary Character Death, Whump, Yes I am picturing Mickey Miranda hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29275890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuinixe/pseuds/Fuinixe
Summary: On a recon mission in the 1800s, Nicholas overdoses and Joseph finds his body.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143242
Comments: 19
Kudos: 168
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	1. Scary Ending

**Author's Note:**

> I will never write immortality loss or perma-death for these two (or for Nile). Hit up chapter two for the happy (albeit weaker) ending.

“I’m going to check on him,” Joseph muttered into Andrea’s ear. He didn’t wait for her to disentangle herself from the prostitute she was currently flirting with. She probably would have told him to wait a bit longer, but Joseph had a growing sense of unease about the length of time it had been since Nicholas had disappeared into the back room to smoke opium and make conversation with their mark.

Joseph made his way through the rooms of the house of iniquity, passing many clusters of people indulging their vices. Near one doorway sat Booker on a velvet chaise lounge, his arm around a pretty young companion of ambiguous gender, and looking uncommonly relaxed. That changed when he saw Joseph approach him and tip his head in the direction of the back room, face tense with anxiety. “ _Excusez-moi, chérie._ ” He extracted himself from the lounge with a parting kiss to the back of his new friend’s hand and followed Joseph into the back.

Joseph pulled back one final curtain and felt a burst of cold night air hit his face, coming from the rear entrance door set in the wall facing him, ajar and swaying in the wind. Against the wall Joe had just passed through was another lounge, this one torn and dirtier than the rest, and on it Nicholas--Nico--

Shit shit _shit._

Joseph fell to his knees by Nicholas’s pale face. His body was slumped over, his beautiful clothes rumpled, and the crotch of his pants was unbuttoned, though his undergarments appeared untouched. Joseph thought that might have less to do with the virtue of their mark and more to do with the bloody dagger on the floor not far from Nicholas’s hand. Joseph saw red blotting out his vision for a moment, but pulled himself back from the brink of futile rage, reaching out to cradle Nicholas’s face in his hands. “Nicolas, wake up, dearest. _Destati, per favore._ ” Behind him, he was vaguely aware of Booker swearing and running out into the night to give chase. 

Nicholas’s breathing was far too slow and shallow, his beloved lips an unnatural, terrifying gray that made Joseph’s whole chest ache. He wiped away a trail of foaming spittle that emerged from the corner of Nicholas’s mouth and swallowed down the bile threatening to rise in his stomach, sliding a hand downward to feel his lover’s pulse. Sluggish, nearly half the speed of Joseph’s own. Joseph ground his molars against each other in his jaw. He knew he would have to sit here and wait for Nicholas to die.

Desperate for something to do and hoping to make Nicholas’s revival a little less unpleasant, he carefully tipped Nicholas fully on to his side, rearranging his lower arm and leg beneath him so that he would not roll onto his stomach and propping cushions up behind his back. He gently pushed back a wavy lock of hair that had fallen across Nicholas’s face. His love was the furthest thing from vain, but had been indulging Joseph’s compulsion to dress and style him in this decade’s fashions, including a mid-length hairstyle that Joseph found incredibly fetching.

Joseph had just shuffled down the couch to do up the buttons on Nicholas’s flies when Andrea whirled into the room. She, too, took in Nicholas’s state and the bloody dagger on the floor and her face transformed into a snarl, unleashing a stream of ancient profanity.

Joseph glanced up. She looked torn between staying to watch over them and giving chase after the snowy footprints in the dark. “Go, boss. I have him.”

She nodded and disappeared through the rear exit after Booker and their would-be rapist.

Joseph finished setting Nicholas’s clothing to rights and stood with a heavy sigh. He glanced out the back whilst shutting the door and spotted a battered tin bucket beneath a stack of wooden pallets in the alley behind the building, which he brought inside and set down on the floor near Nicholas’s head. He settled the curtain that divided them from the rest of the whorehouse so that there were no gaps to peek through, and then there was absolutely nothing left to do but wait in agonizing silence.

Joseph sat wearily at the end of the lounge by Nicholas’s head and placed a careful hand against his neck, feeling his agonizingly slow pulse beneath his fingers get steadily slower. Joseph thought the _beat…..beat……...beat………….beat_ felt like nothing so much as a dragging, inexorable march towards the darkest depths of hell. 

He knew that hell was not fire and brimstone. Hell was not even oblivion. 

Hell was the absence of Nicholas.

The doorknob rattled and Andrea appeared once more. “We found Forrester. That stomach wound Nicholas gave him was fatal.”

“Good,” Joseph responded, dully.

Andrea inclined her head in agreement. “Yes. We’ll need to start over now, though. Perhaps leave the city entirely.”

Joseph nodded once, unable to care much at all right now, though just a few hours ago he’d been flush with the desire to bring this man’s entire organization crashing to the ground. The only thing that mattered right now was the lengthening periods of stillness underneath his fingertips.

“I need to go help Book dispose of the body. We’ll see you and Nicholas at home in a couple hours,” Andrea said, firmly. Joseph nodded again, more firmly this time, somewhat bolstered by her confidence.

Then she was gone, and Joseph was alone again with Nicholas’s poisoned and dying body.

_Beat…………………._

_Beat…………………………….._

_Beat…………………………………………………._

No breaths were escaping Nicholas’s mouth, now. Joseph closed his eyes and prayed.


	2. Optional Happy Ending

One last pulse under Joe’s hand. He waited for the next one. And waited. And waited.

Joseph could hear a roaring in his ears as he realized it was not coming. His breath froze in his lungs. He pulled his hand away, twisting and curling his body over Nicholas, to--he didn’t know what he was going to do but--

Then Nicholas’s eyes snapped open and he drew in one long, groaning, heaving breath.

“ _Nicolò_ ,” Joe moaned, sagging back against the wall. Nicholas made a face and rolled to his side, and Joseph hastily leaned forward and positioned the tin bucket beneath his mouth just in time to catch the stream of vomit that emerged from his mouth.

Nicholas pulled himself up and swung his feet to the ground, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Where’s Forrester?”

Joseph was extremely gratified to see that Nicholas’s lips were lovely and pink again, though perhaps not quite alluring enough to kiss him at precisely this moment. “Dead. Booker and Andrea found him bled out.”

“ _Figlio di puttana_ ,” Nicholas swore. 

“What happened?”

“We came back here, settled in. He insisted he did not want to smoke tonight, brought out a tincture of some kind. I thought it nothing more than the dilute laudanum at the pharmacies.” Nicholas shook his head, disappointed in himself. “I was a fool.”

Joseph took his hand. “Nicholas, it is impossible to keep up perfectly with all the new ways mortals invent to harm themselves. Don’t blame yourself, please.”

Nicholas tipped his head in acquiescence. “Some time after I took it, I realized something was wrong, but I could barely move. He tried to--take advantage, but I stabbed him in the gut and heard him stumble out the door. I do not remember more after that.” 

Joseph wrapped an arm around Nicholas and pulled him to his side, kissing the top of his head. “What do you say we get the hell out of here?”

“ _Sì._ I do not care where we go as long as I leave this room with you.”

Joseph squeezed him tightly and they sat together for a moment, before Joseph stood and drew Nicholas to his feet.

“Book and Andrea will want to see you well. Come along, darling. Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read both, I'm curious to know which ending you liked better!


End file.
